


Time To Face The Music

by afteriwake



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angry Natasha, Angry Natasha Romanov, Established Steve Rogers/Natasha Romanov, F/M, Hurt Steve Rogers, Hurt/Comfort, Missions Gone Wrong, Natasha Needs a Hug, Natasha Romanov Feels, Natasha Romanov Needs a Hug, POV Steve Rogers, Post-Civil War (Marvel), Post-Mission, Post-Serum Steve Rogers, Steve Needs a Hug, Steve Rogers Needs a Hug, Steve Rogers-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-12
Updated: 2016-05-12
Packaged: 2018-06-08 01:09:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6832696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After lying to Natasha about what he was doing for months, Steve nearly dies in the course of a mission, and while recuperating in the hospital, he comes face to face with her as he tries to explain.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Time To Face The Music

**Author's Note:**

  * For [long_live_the_dead](https://archiveofourown.org/users/long_live_the_dead/gifts).



> So I got this sentence starter prompt (" _'The hardest part was lying to you.'_ ") from **BumbleBeeBubblez** before "Captain America: Civil War" came out but when I tried to write it I couldn't get it to work, and so I decided to set this, like, _years_ after CA: CW, when the two of them are a little older, a little more...maybe jaded or wiser, however you want to see them, but were able to find something with each other that they weren't able to find with anyone else even though they tried. So I hope you all enjoy.

“The hardest part was lying to you.” He looked at the blank expression on her face. A blank expression on Natasha’s face was different than it was on other people’s. She could have a smile on her face, or a frown, or any number of other expressions that would be expressing emotion, but you just had to look in her eyes to tell it was all just a mask. Right now, though, there was absolutely no expression on her face at all, no flicker of any emotion whatsoever. No anger, no hurt, no sadness. Nothing. Nat was simply a blank slate.

He’d probably pushed her too far this time.

He sighed and shifted as best he could in the hospital bed. He had the super serum granting him a lot of special abilities, yeah, but he could still get _hurt_. He could still _die,_ probably, it’d just be harder to do. He knew he’d come damn close this time. If it had been any longer and he would have run out of air. All he’d known was he’d never been happier to see anyone than he had been to see Natalia Alianovna Romanoff standing over him, rescue crew behind her, even if he knew he’d have hell to pay for keeping her in the dark.

And now, well...she was here and it was time to face the music.

He opened his mouth to speak again and there was a change in her expression. Her eyes narrowed into a glare and he shut his mouth. She leaned forward and set her hand on his chest. They hadn’t bothered to put a hospital gown on him properly; before he’d been locked in the chamber he’d been tortured and he had deep cuts that needed to be tended. Something had been done to them that was causing them to still bleed a bit, and there were dots of red on the bandages now. Not as much as before, and he was glad for that, but as he watched her lips take a grim line as her finger traced one of them he wished he hadn’t agreed to do the damn mission in the first place.

She probably knew by now it had involved the bastards who had programmed Bucky, who had their hand in the Red Room, who had ruined the lives of two people he cared for most in the world. He didn’t need to bring it up to her, he could see she knew. There was a lot between them that had never needed to be spoken. It was easier that way, to say things without words. No need for lies that way. Lies came easily for her, and unfortunately, they were becoming easier for him, too, and he hated that. But the way their bodies spoke to each other...there was all truth in that.

Their lives were complicated, had been for a long time. They’d tried to have relationships with other people and it hadn’t worked. Her and Banner, him and Sharon...for some reason, they got something out of them, just not what they needed. And the two of them were good people, so they let them go, let their partners find what they needed with better people, less damaged people. Eventually, though, even damaged people need comfort, and they’d turned to each other. She’d joked that it would never be anything more than physical but it wasn’t. It was something more, definitely.

He loved her, he did.

Which had made lying to her all the harder.

After a moment, her hand moved over his heart and settled there, and he could tell she wanted to feel his heart beat. She did that most nights they were asleep together; no matter what position they ended up in for the night, her hand was over his heart. He asked her about it and all she said was it was comforting. He had been flitting in and out of consciousness as they brought him back, got him taken care of, but he knew they had kept them apart. They’d been apart for months now, and it had to have been hell for her, not to have her comfort.

He had so much to make up to her if she’d let him. He just hoped she would.

Finally, she spoke. “You’re an idiot, Rogers, you know that? You should have had me go with you. I could have kept... _this_...from happening.”

“Yeah, I know,” he said, relaxing slightly because she hadn’t moved her hand, just curled her fingers into the bandage slightly. There was even a hint on her face that the mask was dropping, bit by bit. He’d take anger right now, sadness…anything, really. Anything to show he hadn’t lost her.

“I mean, I know you had your reasons. You’re going to do anything to get answers and get payback, but if you ever put yourself in a position to get yourself killed and you don’t actually die again I’ll rescue you and then finish you off in your sleep when you least expect it,” she said. “You can hold me to it.”

He grinned a little. “But you would miss me.”

“Not as much as you think,” she said, the words coming out in a slightly irritated huff. He chuckled slightly at that and then winced as pain lanced through his chest, and then a smirk crossed her face. “Serves you right.”

He gingerly moved his hand to cover hers, squeezing it gently. “You’re my partner, in more ways than one. I promise if there’s a next time you’ll be by my side.”

“I’m holding you to that,” she said, looking at him intently. 

“I’m a man of my word,” he said. He lifted up their joined hands and brought them to his lips and kissed the underside of her wrist, a gesture he knew would bring a smile to her face. And, without fail, it did just that. “Prosti menya?” 

“Fine,” she said. After a moment, she shifted her position and carefully set her head on his chest, her ear just over his heart, and he relaxed completely. He hadn’t pushed her away, hadn’t lost her, and for that he was thankful.

**Author's Note:**

> **Translation:**   
>  **Prosti menya? -** Forgive me?


End file.
